Fight for a Living

by Sophia Schmidt

  "No! Come back to me! Give me my power back!" Derek screamed inwardly. -

  He focused on the last strands of energy, willing for them to stay. He could not cast the spell on his own, but he could still feel the lingering power and started feeding it with his own.

  Derek's light stopped dimming and instead grew stronger and stronger.

  Nana was dumbfounded. She had never seen anything like that before. That was not how the spell was supposed to work.

  Derek wanted it to last forever, but a second later he fell asleep due to mana exhaustion, and the light disappeared quickly.

  Nana wrapped up the baby again and returned him to his mother's embrace.

  "Nana, what was that?" Elina asked full of wonder.

  The old healer had no idea how to answer. Many possibilities popped up in her head, and all of them would require long explanations that would needlessly make Elina worry and maybe even forcing Nana to repeat the spell.

  It had been a long day, and she had no intention of prolonging it even a second more than necessary, so she borrowed a line from her childhood's favourite fairy tale.

  "My child, I think the new-born may be blessed by the light. There is no need to worry, only to rejoice."

  Chapter 7: A Baby’s day

  Derek's first days as a baby were peaceful, but far from boring. He had no responsibilities, all he had to do was eat, sleep, poop and the occasional baby noise or finger grabbing routine.

  That left him with all the time he needed to think about his future.

  On Earth, it was no mystery that kids had a greater potential for learning than adults, and since his family seemed human, or at least human-like he could hope for that to be also true in this dimension.

  From what he could see, his body was no different from a baby from planet Earth. He could hear his heartbeat, his chest inflating and deflating while breathing.

  Even the reproductive apparatus was as he knew it.

  The same could be said for his new family. If it wasn't for the existence of magic, he would have simply thought to have travelled through time, but things clearly weren't that simple.

  Derek quickly dismissed all the "what race am I now?" hypotheses as overthinking.

  One of the advantages of being a baby was that ignorance was perfectly fine. When the time came, someone would teach him.

  He determined that he had two priorities: number one, learn their language. All babies are supposed to learn their native language, and he had only so much time before being considered a retard, so he could not slack off.

  Number two, he had to somehow figure out magic, or at least its foundations. That also had a deadline, since his learning potential was at its peak only until his brain stopped growing.

  After that, he would not be different from anyone else with the same talent and disposition for magic.

  So, he set magic as his first priority. Being considered a slow learner was much better than being weak for life and forced to take another spin at reincarnation.

  Derek spent his first day in the new world in bed, together with his mother, while his father would sleep and rest in the boys' room.

  Whenever someone talked to him, he paid close attention, trying to figure out common words or patterns.

  The rest of the time he was not eating or the cloth diaper being changed, he would try to cast one of the three spells he knew: Ekidu, Vinire Lakhat and Vinire Rad Tu.

  Every attempt was a failure, he could not feel even an iota of power inside himself. Comparing what he saw from what he knew from Earth's Dungeons & Looting, those spells had clearly a verbal and somatic component.

  But that couldn't be all, or at least he hoped so, otherwise until he was able to talk, all his efforts would have been wasted.

  Failure after failure, his anxiety grew stronger. Fear of the unknown and of tomorrow started to build up. Also, getting used to pooping and wetting himself wasn't a pleasant feeling either.

  Thankfully, his mother showered him with nothing but love and affection, making his day not a total loss. Despite his bias about mothers due to his previous life, Elina managed to make him feel loved and protected. That wasn't half bad at all.

  The final outcome of his first day was zero progress in magic, no progress with language. On the other hand his mother seemed to be a good parent, and he finally learned his new name: Lith.

  The second day turned his world upside down.

  Elina, showing the strength of a wild ox, decided she was sick of resting and got up to help do the daily chores.

  Lith had the opportunity to see her full figure. Despite giving birth the previous day, she was a good-looking woman in her early twenties. She was definitely well endowed in all the right places with a fit body honed through hard work. Her shoulder blades long hair was of a beautiful light-brown colour, with shades of red all over it.

  Just the light of the candle made it look like there were flames dancing within.

  "Seeing mother with her hair down on a sunny day must be quite a sight to behold." - Derek thought.

  Maybe it was because Lith was still a baby, maybe because of the mother-son bonding, but Lith felt deeply proud of her.

  He also discovered that she did not use a bra or underpants.

  Once finished dressing, she wrapped up Lith, making it impossible for him to move. Then Elina placed him into her sash, using it like a baby cradle so that she could easily hold him with only one arm and minimum exertion.

  She walked out of the small bedroom and found her older daughter, Rena messing with the fireplace.

  "What in the Great Mother's name do you think you're doing, Rena? The sun is not even out, you should be sleeping. You know you are not allowed to mess with fire!"

  She said with a hiss, trying to not wake up the house.

  "I'm sorry, mom. I just wanted to make you all a surprise. Let you wake up in an already warm house and with the breakfast ready." Rena's face showed only sincere concern.

  "There is no need to worry, silly bee. Your mommy is a pro with kids." Elina said while ruffling her hair.

  Rena, together with her twin brother, was the eldest child. She was eight years old, and her blonde hair with shades of black was the reason for her moniker.

  Elina shooed her away from the fireplace, lighting the fire with a flick of a finger .

  Infiro!

  "Thank heavens!" Lith rejoiced. "Once again I had that weird feeling when discovering a new type of magic. This proves I wasn't just imagining stuff!" -

  Elina sent Rena to open the window shutters to let the dawn light in while she prepared breakfast.

  Elina took several vegetables out of a cabinet and proceeded to chop them with a knife. Some had a familiar look to Lith, like some semi potatoes and odd coloured carrots. The others were all a mystery.

  The idea of having such a breakfast made Lith almost cry. In his past life he never liked vegetables, they were all bland tasting. No matter how much of them he ate, within half an hour he would be hungry again.

  Elina shoved everything inside a small copper cauldron and with the help of a hook, hung it on a metal bar over the fire.

  Then with a finger-snap, she conjured water out of nowhere filling the cauldron.

  Both Lith and Rena were ecstatic, although for completely different reasons.

  For Lith it meant hope. Spells could be cast without words or precise hand movements. That proved to him that there was a real chance to practice magic while still being a baby.

  For Rena it was a reason for pride. Magic was common, but every time Elina casted a silent spell it was like watching a real magician at work.

  "You are so amazing, mom!" Rena's eyes were full of admiration. "Will I ever be as good as you with magic?"

  "Of course you will, silly bee." Elina replied with a kind smile, while inwardly adding: - "After ten plus years of chores every single day." -

  After a while, everyone woke up to have breakfast together. The family consisted of Raaz (fathe
r), Elina, two daughters (Rena and Tista) and two sons (Orpal and Trion).

  Lith could then establish with depressing certainty that there was no such thing as an indoor bathroom.

  From what he could see, the house consisted of a big room used as dining room, kitchen and pantry with three doors that lead to the various bedrooms and nothing else.

  The breakfast was relatively quiet, so he had no problems learning the word for water magic when his father filled some jugs.

  Jorun!

  After everyone left for their daily routine, Elina moved along with Lith to a rocking chair. During the morning he had the pleasure to discover that in the new world the daily chores like washing the dishes or cleaning the floors were all performed using magic.

  From her rocking chair, Elina would simply twirl her index and middle finger while reciting "Brezza!" to generate up to three small whirlwinds that she would move all around the house to collect and get rid of the dust.

  Whenever someone would dirty the floor with earth or mud, a flick of the wrist and a "Magna!" would send it back through the same door it was brought in.

  Lith was delighted discovering how common the use of magic was. Everyone in the family, even the younger ones, would use magic to make their lives easier.

  When bedtime arrived, Lith was dying to try some magic. He had waited so long for his hands and feet to finally be free.

  Elina fell asleep almost instantly, yet Lith was impatient enough to have the impression of having waited for hours.

  After a full day of thinking, he had decided to try only air magic at first, until he was confident enough in his magic control.

  Fire was just too dangerous for a novice, while water and light would easily wake up his mother. He could not spot any dirt to control in the dim light of the room, and was too afraid to mess up with darkness magic until he got a better understanding of it.

  So, he twirled his little arm and said: "Eaa." Nothing happened.

  Lith tried and failed countless times before giving up. He didn't know how long his baby body would last before falling asleep, so he stopped despairing and started thinking.

  Magic was common. Whenever he heard for the first time an elemental magic word, something inside him clicked. Like creating a connection with the elemental energy.

  Those were all good news, but he still couldn't make heads or tails why he was always failing. He never expected to succeed on the first try, but he had thought that something would have manifested.

  A random tiny gust of wind, a magic spark, anything would do.

  So, he started thinking back to when the healer had filled him with power. That feeling was not new to him, but he never experienced it so intense.

  Lith searched his memory, until he found the answer. It was the same sensation that he had when he started practicing aikido, while learning the basic breathing technique.

  "Well, I have nothing to lose. Let's give it a try." -

  Lith breathed in through his diaphragm, the anus relaxed, to draw the world energy in.

  Then he would contract the anus, holding the breath for a few seconds, to let the energy settle in before breathing out, relaxing his whole body.

  Back on Earth, he had always thought that the intoxicating feeling he experienced during his first days of practice was just some kind of placebo effect.

  His naïve young mind deluding itself that the weak could miraculously become strong just believing and practicing in all that Ki/internal energy nonsense.

  But what if he later stopped experiencing that sensation only because his native world energy was just too thin?

  After some time, Lith started to feel a tingle all around his body, and then the energy seemed to move and condense inside his solar plexus.

  The more he performed the breathing technique, the more clearly he could sense the energy getting stable.

  In his old videogames, mana was always blue. So, he visualized a blue sphere settling inside his solar plexus.

  After a while, Lith felt brimming with power. After holding his breath one last time, he twirled his little arm before commanding: "Eaaa!"

  The wind generated barely tweaked his mother's hair, while he had aimed for the blanket, yet he could not stop grinning.

  "This is really a great start!" -

  Chapter 8: Unrelenting Practice

  In the following weeks, Lith's days consisted of a strict routine.

  During the day, when he was all wrapped up, he would only focus on practicing the breathing technique and learning as much as he could about his family and their language.

  At night he would practice magic until exhaustion made him fall asleep. Then as soon as he woke up, he would start again until Elina would get up for the day.

  More than once he tried taking a break, but it would never last long. Living as a baby was not easy. On the contrary it was very stressful.

  He could not speak even the words he had already understood to avoid scaring his family. He could not move. He could do nothing but watch, sleep, eat and relieve his bowels.

  He was not used being so helpless and dependant on someone else for every little thing. Too much free time would bring him to the verge of insanity.

  So, he would practice and practice, trying to adjust to his new reality without overthinking about how absurd and irrational his situation was.

  As Lith's powers increased, so did his control, and after a few weeks he felt confident enough to try earth magic and water magic.

  He would always be careful, never conjuring more than a few droplets of water or manipulating a handful of dirt. He discovered that it was possible to make the elements float in mid-air, changing their shape and size by continuously spending mana.

  After that, he shifted his night training on focus and control rather than power. His mana was very limited and he much preferred doing a few elaborate tricks perfectly rather than a lot of stuff at the risk of blowing his cover.

  No matter how common magic was, Lith doubted that a baby practicing it would be anything less than shocking if not even terrifying.

  Lith was afraid of being abandoned by his family, or even worse killed.

  He was once again scared of death since he now had too much to lose. What were the odds of finding another world where magic existed, to be born as a baby in a loving family?

  Zero, none, nada, squat.

  He had to play his cards well, and play them as close to the chest as possible. Before revealing even a hint of his talent, he needed to know what the standards of this world were.

  How much talent was considered good? How much divided being considered a genius from being labeled a monster?

  His mind was constantly filled with worries and only training would alleviate his anxiety.

  After three months, he had become good enough at silent magic to try fire magic on the fireplace.

  The fire was already lit, and when everyone was busy talking and eating during breakfast, he tried making the flames dance at will. It ended up in failure, since the flames were too strong and the distance too big for his mana to have any effect.

  Yet he kept trying, since he could still sense the flow of magic going from himself to the fireplace, hence making it a good training to expand his mana sense and range.

  The only downside of all that training was that Lith would get hungry faster. Luckily, he was not Elina's first glutton and she had no shortage of milk.

  Another month passed, and Elina started weaning him.

  This event was meaningful for two reasons. The first was Lith noticing that food wasn't abundant in his household, so even if he still had a limited vocabulary, he could still read his parents worried expressions every time he needed to be fed.

  Despite still being a cold hearted, cynical misanthrope at his core, Lith could not help but feel guilty about it.

  They loved him like a child, while he would consider them nothing more than hosts, like a parasite. The only exceptions were Elina and Rena, his big sister, the
only one that aside his mother would take care of him.

  With their constant love, affection, and care, had managed to crack his emotional defensive wall. The more time he spent with them, the more he would consider them part of his real family, rather than just people that he was leading by the nose.

  So, he started limiting his training to not exceed the amount of food they could afford.

  Even that required quite a few tries to find the right amount, since too little would cause even more worry than too much.

  The second reason were world changing discoveries.

  Being forced to stop training magic as much as possible, Lith now had free time that he dedicated to practicing the breathing technique that he named "Accumulation".

  That way, his inner energy, that he had long dubbed as "mana core", grew faster to the point of hitting a bottleneck.

  Apparently, his body wasn't big or strong enough or both, to hold and indefinite amount of mana. Lith never noticed before because his baby body was rapidly growing, and he had only so much time to expand the mana core.

  So, without realizing it, his body and mana core had developed together.

  But now the balance had been broken, and practicing Accumulation would make every fiber of his body ache, so he was forced to stop.

  Luckily he was still well fed and developing fast, so despite not being able doing any physical exercise, the bottlenecks would not last long.

  The second discovery was the result of him being forced not to practice magic or use Accumulation.

  While studying his bottleneck status, he found out that it was possible to modify the breathing technique by removing the breath holding step. That way, the world energy would just flow in and out of his body, energizing him like a good night's sleep.

  Lith named this new technique "Invigoration."

  After several tries, he discovered that the world's mana could allow him to stay awake for several days, but not indefinitely.

  Each time he would use Invigoration, the energizing effect would last less and less and only sleeping would reset its effectiveness.